We live-blogged all the action in stocks on Tuesday right here. For a rundown of what happened before the bell, check out Indications. A concise rundown of the regular trading session can be found in Market Snapshot shortly after the open.

After all that pain in recent weeks for previously high-flying tech names, Netflix is serving as a bright spot.

“A huge week for earnings reports has started out very positively with Netflix beating the street by a wide margin and rallying on the news overnight,” writes Colin Cieszynski of CMC Markets in a note today.

“Recall that recently some of the highest flyers had fallen back on concerns that earnings may not be able to keep up with valuations. This could be put to the test again later in the week when Facebook reports.”

BMO said cost trends are strong and sales are tracking above plan in areas that were not affected by bad weather, according to FlyOnTheWall. The upgrade comes just days after Barron’s said shares of the home-improvement retailer could rally as much as 25% in the coming months if the housing market continues to show signs of improvement. Home Depot is the most upgraded holding in the last three months of the 196 newsletters tracked by Hulbert Interactive.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has enlisted investor William Ackman in its attempt to acquire rival Allergan, a $46 billion deal that would create a Big Pharma behemoth. But the details of the Ackman/Valeant alliance are as interesting as the deal itself. WSJ’s Dana Mattioli explains on MoneyBeat.

“Most numbers from government’s economic data suggest that April was stronger than March and March was stronger than February. The economy is improving gradually and slowly and a lot of the slowdown can be attributed to cold weather.

But with low interest rates and improving hiring we anticipate more growth in this market.”

Apple
/quotes/zigman/68270/delayed/quotes/nls/aaplAAPL is little changed today ahead of its fiscal second-quarter earnings report after the close Wednesday. MarketWatch’s Ben Pimentel says just keep in mind that this quarter is an odd one for Apple because its sales will be down compared to Q1, which is the company’s busiest business period.

Economists are unwavering in their assessment of where yields are headed in the next half year.

Jim Bianco, of Bianco Research, points out in a market comment Tuesday that a survey of 67 economists this month shows every single one of them expects the 10-year Treasury 10_YEAR +0.41% yield to rise in the next six months.

Gilead Sciences Inc.
/quotes/zigman/72849/delayed/quotes/nls/gildGILDis expected to post first-quarter earnings of 89 cents a share Tuesday after the bell. Gildead’s breakthrough Sovaldi hepatitis C drug has a $84,000 price tag. MarketWatch contributor Tim Mullaney, who has hepatitis C, says he has no qualms taking the drug because it could help save his life.

Democrats are bad for business. Stocks will inevitably fall when the Fed hikes rates. The market always goes down when a new Fed chair takes over. These are all widely held beliefs and they’re all fully or partly baloney, according to Morgan Stanley’s Adam Parker.

In a wide-ranging note, the bank’s top equity strategist goes about debunking a number of myths and misapprehensions — even skewering himself in the process. Read about it here.

Tuesday is the only weekday that has averaged a gain so far this year for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while the Nasdaq Composite has managed to gain ground, on average, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

So far, the S&P 500 has averaged a Tuesday gain of 0.56%, while the DJIA has gained 0.41%. If the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite all finish in the green, it will mark the sixth straight week all three indexes have gained on a Tuesday.

Tuesday is in the books and the S&P 500 just matched its longest win streak since September as both it and the Nasdaq Composite rose for a sixth straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also gained ground, ending just 0.4% shy of its all-time high set on Dec. 31.

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